As part of our corporate engagement, Henkel and its brands directly enter into social partnerships in the communities around the world.

Corporate and Brand Engagement

As part of our corporate engagement, Henkel and its brands directly enter into social partnerships in the communities around the world. In different partnerships and initiatives we support schools and universities, social initiatives and public institutions such as sports clubs, hospitals, kindergartens, charity organizations, and cultural events.

The company supports long-term projects from all five areas of engagement: social needs, education and science, fitness and health, arts and culture, and the environment.

Example of brand engagement: Children are our future! Project Futurino

A good example of our brand engagement is the "Project Futurino”, which Persil has been running since 2007. This project improves opportunities for development and education for children and young people. The focus of “Project Futurino” is on projects which enable children to learn more about nature and to acquire a better awareness of the environment. The first “Futurino Project” initiative was launched in 2007 to mark the Persil centennial.

Since the start of the initiative Persil has sponsored 500 educational projects. More than 116,000 children in Germany have so far benefited from “Project Futurino”.

Example of corporate engagement: sustainability ambassadors

Ambassadors for a more sustainable world

In 2013, the Laundry & Home Care business sector established its Sustainability Ambassadors program worldwide.

The Laundry & Home Care business sector developed the idea in 2012 of turning employees into sustainability ambassadors. To do this, Henkel trains employees so that they are able to competently convey the topic of sustainability to co-workers, suppliers, customers and consumers, as well as to students.

Since then, more than 1,300 Laundry & Home Care staff members have gained an overview in online seminars of the global challenges involved in sustainable development and of Henkel’s own concrete sustainability strategy.

In 2012, Laundry & Home Care also developed a program in which the sustainability ambassadors explain to elementary school students what sustainability really means and how every individual can make a personal contribution to it. With an interactive, specially prepared program, the students learn, for example, how they can save water and energy in the bathroom and when doing laundry.

Henkel successfully tested the program in a broadbased international pilot phase in Germany, the United Arab Emirates, and the Czech Republic. In 2013, Henkel rolled out the school project globally with the help of its sustainability ambassadors, and also included the two other business sectors, Adhesive Technologies and Beauty Care, and the Corporate Functions in the program. Training sessions have been held in North and Latin America, Russia and South Korea.

The documents for our school projects have been made available in 24 languages to all employees. 5,900 kids have been taught.

Example of brand engagement: „Shaping Futures“

Launched in November 2010, Shaping Futures is a worldwide social initiative that sees Schwarzkopf Professional partnering with leading non-profit organisation SOS Children’s villages. Groups of our volunteer hairdressers from different countries, travelled to SOS Children’s villages for 4 weeks to train disadvantaged youngsters, introducing them to our craft and showing how it could provide them with a potential livelihood.

Its goal: training young people in basic hairdressing techniques, then helping them to get a job in a salon or accompanying them on their way toward becoming independent hairdressers. Since then, hairdressers and Schwarzkopf employees have held courses in SOS Children’s Villages in eight countries: Brazil, India, Cambodia, Colombia, Latvia, Morocco, Peru and Vietnam.

One Indian girl struck them particularly during the training course in Chennai, India. Read more about this in our magazine „Together 2013“.

Example of corporate engagement: the Hugo Henkel Award

The importance and benefits of science and technology are unquestionable. We must reinforce their position in society and particularly in schools by motivating more children and young people with enthusiasm for science.

Every second year Henkel in Düsseldorf, Germany, presents the Hugo Henkel Award. This award honors school-based concepts that aim to promote the teaching of science and technology in the Düsseldorf region as well as other Henkel locations in Germany.

Example of brand engagement: „HandinHandwerk“

With the “HandinHandwerk” initiative, the Adhesive Technologies business sector donated one euro for each article purchased from a selected range of its products for professional craftsmen. These purchases of products from the Metylan, Sista and Thomsit brands raised a sum of 25,000 euros within three months. The goal of this campaign was to use this money to support the renovation of a social facility.

The “HandinHandwerk” initiative began on April 1, 2013, and ended on June 28, 2013. Henkel is giving the money to the “Haus der kleinen Elbspatzen” daycare center in Zahna-Elster, so that it can be renovated by craftsmen. This town had been severely affected by the flooding in eastern Germany in June 2013.

“We are happy that our initiative took place at exactly the right time,” says Christian Sinz, marketing employee at Adhesive Technologies. “Many craftsmen agree."